As it turned out, [Room Building] did not work like [Tunneling].

When I used [Tunneling] it was very simple and straightforward. The invisible tendrils that came off of my core would stretch into the dirt a bit, claw out a chunk of it, and then at some point after that, it would disappear into me. It didn’t really matter how far from my core the dirt was either. One moment it would be there, the next it would be gone and into myself.

Was it more accurate to think of my tendrils less like dozens of invisible arms and more like a whole bunch of mouths flopping about on the ends of long tubes? Possibly. Was it also a pretty horrible image? Oh, absolutely. It didn’t really fit what it felt like to move and touch things, either. It was much easier to just think of them as claws like the ones the badgers had.

Unlike with [Tunneling] there was no reaching out and scooping up pieces of dirt when it came to [Room Building]. It felt more like a bunch of my tendrils formed together, reaching through the dirt to wrap around the entire amount in one go. All it took was me deciding to use the skill, and then just like that, I was stretching around a chunk of soil the size of the room I was trying to build.

Based on how [Tunneling] worked, and my speculations that [Room Building] would use up MP at the same rate that it did, I took a good look at my measly eighteen MP and decided to try to build a room that would be roughly 90 cm by 30 cm in size. That should use about fifteen of my mana, taking me down to a measly three yet still leaving me with enough to avoid passing out. Maybe I would be super lucky and find something tasty in all of that dirt, that way I could get some MP back.

The feeling of [Room Building] doing its thing was awkward and strange. It was like I was eating too much all at once, and I could practically feel things temporarily getting stuck inside my tendrils on their way into my core. It wasn’t painful but it was definitely uncomfortable. How the rock that made up the solid part of my body could take in all that dirt I would never know, but somehow it all managed to disappear into me. It would probably take a while for me to get used to using the skill, that much was for sure.

Before I could even begin to celebrate successfully using my new skill, however, several things happened all at once, managing to take away my attention from what I was supposed to be doing. I didn’t have time to process one thing before the next was demanding my focus.

Size Threshold reached. Dungeon Core has unlocked the ability to purchase Decoration Skills.

The second thing I noticed was that there had been plenty of things in that dirt that I couldn’t eat, resulting in the ceiling becoming draped with all sorts of roots that dangled about at different heights. That meant I wouldn’t be able to dig upwards anymore, so if I ended up needing to make the dungeon taller for any reason I would have to dig down instead.

The third was that I had eaten something in that roomful of dirt that was ridiculously delicious. I had swallowed it whole without finding out what it was, yes, but that didn’t stop me from being filled up with the sweet flavour of it. It was rich and left me feeling full for once… Much too full, actually. Painfully full.

Which brought me to the fourth thing that I became aware of, which was that I had somehow managed to stretch my MP past capacity. I knew this because one moment I was hungry, desperately hungry, and the next I felt as if I might somehow manage to eat in reverse. Every instinct inside me demanded I figure out how to do just that, in fact.

Because I had used [Appraisal] just before testing out my new skill, and I had remembered to leave it open so I could understand how [Room Building] worked, I was subjected to an immediate update on what had just happened to me. While I didn’t pay too much attention to the numbers other than a cursory glance, because I was much too busy trying not to expel what I had just eaten, that didn’t stop me from taking note of just how alarming my change in stats had become.

Nameless [Dungeon Core] Lvl: 1

Title: None

Size: 100.98702

Points: 33

HP: 10/10

MP: 136/128

Skills:

[Mana Absorption] [Devour] [Tunneling] lvl.1 [Appraisal] lvl.2 [Room Building] lvl.1

All it took was that one look at my current MP for it to really click that I was in a lot of trouble. I had no idea what would happen to me if I continued trying to fight my new urge to spew everything back up, but judging from the sudden intense pain I found myself in? There was no way it could be good.

While eating didn’t seem to be a sensible solution to my problem, seeing as it was what landed me in all this trouble to begin with, I knew that if I could just burn through that extra mana I would feel better again. With the amount of horror I was currently experiencing I didn’t have time to consider any other solution, I needed to go with the first one I came up with. Besides, it just made sense: if I was full past capacity, I simply needed to empty out some of that mana.

With the room still before me, and still barely the size I needed it to be in order to summon my kobold, I proceeded to throw the extra MP into making it a more suitable size. I turned [Room Building] loose onto it, aiming to make the space six times larger than it currently was.

The relief was instantaneous.

As my MP drained into growing the room out, my mana storage also increased in response. Before I knew it, I found myself well below my new halfway point and well out of the range of where I had been feeling sick. I was so happy to no longer feel like eating in reverse, in fact, that for a moment all I could do was simply lay there in the silence of my empty dungeon and bask in the sweet relief.

All desire to summon the kobold had vanished from me. Sure, I still knew that it was something I would need to do eventually, and it was still something I wanted to do, but I didn’t feel the need to rush anymore. Now when I was still reeling with the whiplash of going from sensation to sensation so quickly.

I had been injured before thanks to my own stupidity, but the sunlight and bouncing down the tunnel hadn’t hurt nearly as much as eating too much mana had. It had literally felt as if my core might split right open, as if I would quickly find myself shattering from the sheer pressure that had been pushing out of me from the inside. It had been an awful and disgusting sensation, and when mixed with the desire to start ejecting dirt? It had reached levels so horrendous and terrible that I found myself suddenly wary of continuing to eat and expand.

Eating had, just now, brought me pain and panic, after all. Even though it had also been the solution to the problem, could anyone really blame me for not wanting to risk putting myself through that again?

Even though doing nothing would normally be the last thing I wanted to do, for the time being it was the only thing I wanted to do. I just needed to take a moment to relax and recover. That had to have been the single worst thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life. Nothing could be worse than that, and not a single thing could convince me that it was time to get back to work. At least not until I could forget the sensation of barely being able to hold myself together.

As I lay in the cool and quiet of my empty dungeon a familiar sort of tingle rushed along the walls, alerting me to the fact that something had entered my tunnels. I wasn’t capable of making any real noise, but I imagined myself making the same huffy sound I had heard Mama Badger making earlier when she had been digging.

Annoyed at the intrusion on my recovery, I turned my attention to the dungeon entrance to see if it was anything I needed to bother myself with. Judging by the brown fur, it seemed as if Papa Badger had returned, and he was carrying a mouthful of bright green grass with him this time.

Oh, a present for me? You shouldn’t have! I’m much too full to eat another bite! Oh, but you insist? Really? Well, if that’s the case… I wouldn’t want to be rude. Just a little nibble couldn’t hurt.

While Papa Badger carried the bundle of grass to the room he had dug out earlier, I quickly snapped up the few blades that had dropped from his mouth and to the floor of the dungeon. It wasn’t as if I was really doing it to eat. Mostly I was just trying to keep the tunnel clean, that was all. It wasn’t like I was some sort of glutton who could hardly contain myself when it came to food.

Compared to the dirt and all the squirmy things that lived inside of it, the grass tasted fresh and bright, the way I imagined the light might taste if I could eat it. It wasn’t any more filling than the ants had been earlier, but it was nice to eat something new every once in a while. The same old flavours all the time were bound to get boring, though I hadn’t been around long enough to really get tired of them.

Once my curiosity about what grass tasted like passed, I began to actually pay attention to what Papa Badger was doing.

He seemed to be spreading the grass out across the floor of the room that he had made, though it was only a very thin layer at the moment. As he was patting it down with his paws, Mama Badger entered the dungeon, also carrying her own mouthful of grass. It was nice to see the both of them together, though I had no idea what they were doing.

Were they planning on trying to make my tunnels look like the outside world? I didn’t really mind if they did, while I was graciously allowing them to live inside my walls the decorations would be very welcome. After all, my ultimate goal was to build a dungeon so fantastic and perfect that no one would ever want to leave it again, so if they could give me an idea of what they liked it would help. Not because I got lonely and wanted the badgers to stay longer, that would just be ridiculous, but because if they spent more time inside the walls I would be able to keep myself full.

It was just good sense, that was all. I might have been dumb, but even I knew not to pass up on a free meal when it literally walked right into my mouth.

The badgers performed a rather interesting sort of dance as they met near the end of the tunnel, one skirting around the other as they carefully traded places, so that Papa Badger was leaving the dungeon as Mama Badger was spreading out her own mouthful of grass. She dropped the grass, using her claws to begin arranging it, adding to the slowly growing layer on the floor.

I watched, occasionally picking off the bits that dropped from their mouths as they continued to haul in bundle after bundle of grass, laying it out and creating a thick layer in their room. It looked like it might be fairly comfortable to sit on. It had to be better than just rolling across the hard ground, right? Maybe when I finished setting up the dungeon I would look into growing my own blanket of grass across the floor, that way if I managed to somehow go tumbling about again I at least wouldn’t find myself bouncing off of stones.

It seemed as if the badgers themselves thought their new padded layer of grass was pretty comfortable. When she finished patting down her last mouthful, Mama Badger carefully laid herself down, tucked up on her side, and let out a satisfied sounding huff. She looked pretty pleased with herself, though I wasn’t actually sure what a pleased badger looked like. The way her chest was puffed out and her head lay cradled against her front legs, however, made a pretty strong impression of relaxation and happiness.

Not long after she settled down, Papa Badger returned as well, shuffling down the tunnel to join her. He released his final bunch of grass across from her, but rather than take the time to spread it out and pat it down, he simply flopped over onto his side as if his legs had given out. He hit the floor with a heavy thud, causing Mama Badger to open her eyes and make a sound that was hard to describe. It wasn’t quite a growl, being too high pitched, but it wasn’t really a chittering noise either. It was a rough and irritable sort of sound, and she snapped her teeth at him as she made it.

Papa Badger simply closed his eyes and nudged his face closer to hers, leaning up against her and pressing his side to her own as if she had made the sweetest and most affectionate noise in the world. For a moment Mama Badger stayed quiet, partially sitting up so that she could look at him head-on, and then with the heaviest sigh imaginable she laid her head against his. It was almost as if she had given up on trying to argue with him, just accepting whatever he was doing.

It was kind of cute actually, even I could admit that much, albeit very reluctantly. They looked snug and happy curled against each other the way they were, a happy little family in the making.

Papa Badger let out a puffing breath, making the same sort of pleased expression that Mama Badger had made earlier, though his head was broader than hers so it didn’t look exactly the same. It seemed as if somehow, despite knowing nothing about them, I still knew enough about badgers to know what a happy one looked like.

Oh! That was right! I still needed to look into what exactly badgers were! Now that [Appraisal] had leveled up and become more useful, I might actually be able to learn something other than what I had figured out just by watching them.

I set my gaze on Mama Badger, not because I was concerned at all due to the fact that she was pregnant, but simply because she happened to be a bit closer to me than Papa Badger was. Alright then, [Appraisal], it’s time for you to do your thing!

[Badger] Lvl: 1

Female

Status: Pregnant

HP: 142/150

SP: 31/200

Skills:

[Dig] lvl. 1

Huh… Somehow I had expected the stat sheet to be different now, to have more information added to it, but this was fine. Even though this aspect of [Appraisal] hadn’t changed much, at least the part that could explain things had improved. I could now confirm that Mama Badger was female, though the fact she was pregnant was probably confirmation enough, so that seemed to be something of a bonus.

Her HP had gone down some, but she didn’t really look like she was hurt, so maybe that had happened just by doing whatever it was that badgers did normally? Her SP was pretty low, too, but it seemed like that must have been because she was putting in an awful lot of work in general. She looked absolutely tuckered out, and judging by how deeply she was already breathing? She was tired enough to pass right out into sleep after laying down.

I focused [Appraisal] on the word “badger”.

Badger. A nocturnal animal that digs burrows, known as setts, in order to live in them. A family of around six badgers will normally live together in these setts, and male badgers mate for life. The females are known as sows and the males are known as boars. They love to eat insects, and they are incredibly clean creatures.

It kind of felt like [Appraisal] was just rattling off a series of random facts, but I had managed to actually learn a few things, so that was nice. It had also confirmed other things that I had figured out along the way, which made me feel like I wasn’t a total idiot. All in all, it was pretty great that [Appraisal] was finally useful for something other than yelling at!

So, they really did live underground, and it seemed like Mama and Papa Badger were planning on starting their family together here in my dungeon. Just how many babies would they end up having? She didn’t look any bigger than he did, so I couldn’t imagine that she would have too many babies in her. While the thought of a bunch of badgers living in me had bothered me a little at first, the idea of getting all of that free food plus entertainment was kind of appealing now.

The sett they had dug out for themselves so far didn’t seem to be big enough to house up to six of them, but maybe they were planning on adding more space later? Maybe, like me, they had simply needed to stop where they were for a while so they could rest and recharge, so they could get the energy back to continue building later.

Then again, judging by the way the world outside my dungeon was beginning to shift towards shades of gray, maybe they had just decided that it was time to call things and go to sleep before the sun came up. Badgers were supposed to be nocturnal after all.

I had one last thing to check on before I was satisfied with the information that I had learned so far. Was Papa Badger actually male? The chances were good considering that apparently, badgers mate for life and Mama Badger was carrying around a belly full of babies, but I needed to double-check just to be sure. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else until then.

[Badger] Lvl: 1

Male

Status: Asleep

HP: 189/200

SP: 29/250

Skills:

[Dig] lvl. 2

Aha! I was right! Papa Badger really was a male, and that meant that him and Mama Badger really were going to have a family together! Congratulations, Papa Badger! Mama Badger seems like a real catch to me! Plus, look at that, your [Dig] skill is a whole level higher than hers!

[Dig], huh? I wonder if it’s anything like [Tunneling].

[Dig]. A skill that consumes SP to use.

… What…? Are you kidding me here, [Appraisal]? Wasn’t I just praising you for actually being useful? Why did you suddenly go back to being trash, huh? Ugh, whatever… The point was that it looked like both of the badgers liked to dig, and Papa Badger even more so given his higher skill level.

Diggers who live underground, avoid the sun, and eat insects, huh? It seemed like me and the badgers had more in common than I thought.